CHRISTOFACISM
The former president only cares about himself. The new Speaker of the House actually wants to make America a Christian theocracy.
The most dangerous movement in American politics today is not Trumpism. It is Christofascism. With the election of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the organized effort to impose the extreme religious views of a minority of Americans on the entire country, at the expense of many of our most basic freedoms, took a disturbing step forward.
Despite Speaker Johnson’s claims of being a constitutional “originalist,” via his elevation by a unanimous vote of his Republican colleagues he has moved America closer to having precisely the kind of government America’s founders most feared.
Thomas Jefferson said he viewed with “solemn reverence that act of the whole of the American people” which established “a wall of separation between church and state.” George Washington approved a treaty that explicitly stated, “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” The very First Amendment in America’s Bill of Rights states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The principal author of the Constitution, James Madison, in his treatise, “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” described 15 reasons why the U.S. government must avoid backing any religion.
There is a reason the word “God” does not appear a single time in the Constitution. The founders were breaking with an England and Europe that were still in the thrall of the idea that rulers derived their powers from heaven above, “the divine right of kings.” But in the Constitution it explicitly states their view that the powers of government are derived “from the consent of the governed.”
Jefferson—like Washington, Franklin, Madison, and Monroe—was a practitioner of deism, a view founded in the idea that the Supreme Being created the universe and then essentially took a step back, leaving natural laws to operate on their own. They believed religion should be a matter that was entirely between individuals and their God, and that it should play no role in governance.
Indeed, Jefferson’s views were even starker. He wrote in a letter to John Adams, “The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of the virgin” would be seen as just another fable and described the religious views that descended from that fable as an “artificial scaffolding.”
Former President Donald Trump is greeted by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) on February 4, 2020.
Thomas Paine considered much of the Bible to be more “consistent” with what might be called “the word of the demon” rather than that of God. Madison said that “religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together” and saw the separation of the two as essential to avoiding “the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries”—a sentiment that clearly resonates with our own times. Washington celebrated that the U.S. had at last created a form of government “that gives to bigotry no sanction.” Benjamin Franklin wrote at length about the pernicious nature of religious tests in government documents.
Yet here we are.
The Speaker of the House has radically different views. He represents a movement that is actively seeking to institutionalize the religious beliefs of evangelical Christians into law.
In fact, even as we see with chilling clarity how those with a similar motive have sought to infuse the law with their religious beliefs on the Supreme Court and in state capitals across the country, Johnson may be the most extreme example of a dangerously empowered religious fanatic in our recent history—and yes, I remember that Mike Pence was, not so long ago, the Vice President of the United States.
The term Christofascism may seem inflammatory. It is not. It is intended to provide the most accurate possible definition of what Johnson and those in his movement wish to achieve. Like other fascists they seek to impose by whatever means necessary their views on the whole of society even if that means undoing established laws and eliminating accepted freedoms.
Christofascists do so in the name of advancing their Christian ideology, asserting that all in society must be guided by their views and values whether they adhere to them or not.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) hugs newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) on October 25, 2023.
Although Johnson was little known outside Republican congressional circles (and not that well known within them), he made it clear from his first moments as speaker who he was and what kind of speaker he would be. In his opening remarks, he even suggested it was divine intervention that made him the second in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency. He said, “I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority.”
He has developed close relationships including with Christian Dominionist groups like the “7 Mountains” New Apostolic Reformation effort appearing on broadcasts cited as one of their “favorites.”
The former president only cares about himself. The new Speaker of the House actually wants to make America a Christian theocracy.
David Rothkopf
Published Oct. 26, 2023 2:41PM EDTThe most dangerous movement in American politics today is not Trumpism. It is Christofascism. With the election of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the organized effort to impose the extreme religious views of a minority of Americans on the entire country, at the expense of many of our most basic freedoms, took a disturbing step forward.
Despite Speaker Johnson’s claims of being a constitutional “originalist,” via his elevation by a unanimous vote of his Republican colleagues he has moved America closer to having precisely the kind of government America’s founders most feared.
Thomas Jefferson said he viewed with “solemn reverence that act of the whole of the American people” which established “a wall of separation between church and state.” George Washington approved a treaty that explicitly stated, “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” The very First Amendment in America’s Bill of Rights states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The principal author of the Constitution, James Madison, in his treatise, “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” described 15 reasons why the U.S. government must avoid backing any religion.
There is a reason the word “God” does not appear a single time in the Constitution. The founders were breaking with an England and Europe that were still in the thrall of the idea that rulers derived their powers from heaven above, “the divine right of kings.” But in the Constitution it explicitly states their view that the powers of government are derived “from the consent of the governed.”
Jefferson—like Washington, Franklin, Madison, and Monroe—was a practitioner of deism, a view founded in the idea that the Supreme Being created the universe and then essentially took a step back, leaving natural laws to operate on their own. They believed religion should be a matter that was entirely between individuals and their God, and that it should play no role in governance.
Indeed, Jefferson’s views were even starker. He wrote in a letter to John Adams, “The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of the virgin” would be seen as just another fable and described the religious views that descended from that fable as an “artificial scaffolding.”
Former President Donald Trump is greeted by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) on February 4, 2020.
Thomas Paine considered much of the Bible to be more “consistent” with what might be called “the word of the demon” rather than that of God. Madison said that “religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together” and saw the separation of the two as essential to avoiding “the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries”—a sentiment that clearly resonates with our own times. Washington celebrated that the U.S. had at last created a form of government “that gives to bigotry no sanction.” Benjamin Franklin wrote at length about the pernicious nature of religious tests in government documents.
Yet here we are.
The Speaker of the House has radically different views. He represents a movement that is actively seeking to institutionalize the religious beliefs of evangelical Christians into law.
In fact, even as we see with chilling clarity how those with a similar motive have sought to infuse the law with their religious beliefs on the Supreme Court and in state capitals across the country, Johnson may be the most extreme example of a dangerously empowered religious fanatic in our recent history—and yes, I remember that Mike Pence was, not so long ago, the Vice President of the United States.
The term Christofascism may seem inflammatory. It is not. It is intended to provide the most accurate possible definition of what Johnson and those in his movement wish to achieve. Like other fascists they seek to impose by whatever means necessary their views on the whole of society even if that means undoing established laws and eliminating accepted freedoms.
Christofascists do so in the name of advancing their Christian ideology, asserting that all in society must be guided by their views and values whether they adhere to them or not.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) hugs newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) on October 25, 2023.
Although Johnson was little known outside Republican congressional circles (and not that well known within them), he made it clear from his first moments as speaker who he was and what kind of speaker he would be. In his opening remarks, he even suggested it was divine intervention that made him the second in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency. He said, “I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority.”
He has developed close relationships including with Christian Dominionist groups like the “7 Mountains” New Apostolic Reformation effort appearing on broadcasts cited as one of their “favorites.”
